


All Things Must Pass

by melturheadaches



Category: Panic! at the Disco
Genre: Cults, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-26
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-12-20 06:16:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11914926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melturheadaches/pseuds/melturheadaches
Summary: "Sunset doesn't last all eveningA mind can blow those clouds awayAfter all this my love is upAnd must be leaving"- George Harrison (All Things Must Pass, 1970)





	All Things Must Pass

**Author's Note:**

> "Sunset doesn't last all evening  
> A mind can blow those clouds away   
> After all this my love is up   
> And must be leaving"  
> \- George Harrison (All Things Must Pass, 1970)

Crickets chirped in the rafters above Brendon’s bed as he lay awake, heart pounding with adrenaline. He focused on the sound of the TV downstairs, the faint hum of the air conditioner, and then, his father’s snores. 

Brendon sat completely still, holding his breath until he was sure it really was his father’s snoring. Then he sat up in bed, pushing the covers off of himself. It was time.

He reached under his bed and pulled out a backpack, which was bulging with supplies. Further below the bed, a walking stick. He slowly and quietly, slid both of them out before sliding out of bed and pulling the backpack on. 

Still listening to the snores coming from downstairs, Brendon tiptoed across his small bedroom to the open door. He’d purposely left it open, knowing the door creaked far too much to open late at night. Looking both ways down the hallway, he stepped out, praying the floor wouldn’t creak as he stepped onto it. The house was new, only built a decade before, but it wasn’t well-constructed, and the floor had the potential to creak almost anywhere you put your foot down. 

He stepped from his room and into the hall. No creaking, but he had the whole hall to walk down to get to the stairs. Slowly, he tiptoed out of his door and past his sister’s room, his mother’s room, all the way to the top of the stairs. The snoring was louder now, coming directly from downstairs and mixing with the sound of the TV. A commercial for a rug cleaning company was playing, some cheery jingle. Brendon took his first step down the stairs. 

Immediately, the step creaked. The snoring stopped, and Brendon froze, holding his breath. 

“Who’s there?” his father grunted. Brendon stayed quiet, and took a deep breath.

“Just getting water,” he replied, voice shaky. 

Brendon kept walking down the stairs, hoping his father wouldn’t see the obvious fact that he had a backpack on and a walking stick in his hand. 

“Be quieter next time,” his father replied. Brendon heard him lay his head back down, and the sound of the TV filled the room again. 

Brendon got to the bottom of the stairs and made a detour towards the kitchen, pulling a metal water bottle out of his backpack. He had to get water now, otherwise his dad would suspect something. He poured out the water already in the bottle and filled it again, waiting for the sound of snores to return. 

When they did, he tiptoed through the kitchen to the back door, pushing through the unlocked screen door. Outside, dust blew gently in the wind, and the stars shone above Brendon’s head. He took the steps down from the back porch and headed south, into the desert but towards the highway. Nearby, a dog barked. Brendon glanced back at his house. All the windows were dark. No one was awake. He was free. 

He walked towards the highway, looking behind him to make sure the wind was starting to blow away his tracks. It was, and he was confident they’d all be long gone before dawn hit. Still, there was a nervous flutter in his stomach when he thought about the hell he’d go through if he got caught. Or, what could happen to him outside of his house, his farm. His family had always warned him of what if was like in the city, the desert, or really, anywhere outside their property. Even the supply store a few miles down the highway was full of danger. 

Still, he swallowed his fear. He knew that the world outside the farm couldn’t be that bad. He’d seen on TV, what the world was like outside of their town, outside of Utah. It wasn’t all bad. He just hoped he’d find the good side.

Brendon looked down at his compass for the fourth time, just to be one hundred percent sure he was going in the right direction. He was, so he put his compass away and walked a little faster, hoping to cover more ground before sunrise. It was incredibly important that he got as far as he could before the sun came up, and his family woke up. Then, they would notice he was gone, and then, they would be looking for him. If he was too close when they started looking, there was no chance he would stay hidden and free. 

Time passed. The moon slowly moved from one end of the sky to the other, and the sky started to turn from black to dark purple in the far east. Then it was dark blue, then grey, and then the reds, oranges and yellows of the sunrise. 

By that point, Brendon had walked around six miles. It seemed like a lot, but in the valley he lived in the flat terrain made for easy walking. Of course, he was sweating and thirsty, but he was making sure to preserve water. Who knew when he would be able replenish his water supply. 

As the sun came up, it got hotter and hotter. Brendon started sweating more and more, and not just from the heat. He knew his family was awake now, and that they’d noticed his absence. He’d reached the highway, and almost every car that passed him could be a police car looking for him, ready to pick him up.

But none came. He kept walking, getting slower and slower and getting thirstier and thirstier. Soon, he had no choice but to take his last sip of water. It was cool on his throat, and unstuck his tongue from the roof of his mouth, but the relief was temporary. 

Within an hour, Brendon started to feel an ache in his forehead. As he walked, the ground occasionally seemed to lurch forward. He kept marching forward, though he sometimes veered to the left or right. Slowly, he found himself peeling away from the road, walking further and further out into the desert. He wasn’t sure why. His thoughts were cloudy, and he was almost fading in and out of consciousness. Suddenly, his foot caught on the edge of a worn asphalt road, and he fell on his face, knocking the air out of his chest. 

He hadn’t seen the road before, but now that he was laying half on top of it, he could exactly get up. He rolled over onto his back, staring up at the faded blue sky. The sun burned his arms and his ankles where his pants stopped. Slowly, the his vision blurred into black.


End file.
